Morning Mashup: Komarov In, Frattin Out

Some good news and some awful news out of Leafland yesterday. Finally inking the 25-year-old Finnish forward after a courtship dating back to last summer, the Leafs officially signed 2005 draft pick Leo Komarov to a one-year contract (see our posts on Komarov here and here). The bad news? The Marlies have lost Matt Frattin for the Calder Cup Finals due to a knee injury sustained in a collision with the post while he scored the empty netter in Game 5 against Oklahoma City.

To call the loss of Matt Frattin a significant one would be understating matters. The AHL post season’s leading goal scorer has posted 10 goals in the playoffs and 24 goals overall in 36 games at the AHL level this season. Frattin has been responsible for nearly 40% of total Marlie goal production in these playoffs and many of his tallies have been self-made. Since round two we’ve seen him dominate offensively and find the target with stunning frequency; let’s hope this doesn’t derail his momentum too badly headed into next year’s camp.

With Nazem Kadri and Mike Zigomanis banged up as well, the Marlies have added Greg McKegg to the roster now that the London Knights’ season is over. After a pretty easy-breezy first three rounds, the adversity just ramped up a notch or ten headed into their match up against Norfolk, who entered the playoffs by making AHL history with a 29-game winning streak (and haven”t slowed down much since). Who steps up and how do the Marlies respond? Game 1 goes Friday night.

Oh yeah, I should probably mention the Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight. Good read from Lebrun on the two long time GMs at the respective helms. This quote from Lamoriello struck me as familiar: “Surround yourself with the best possible people you can get. Try and get people that might know more than you. Don’t be insecure. Respect it. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up that it’s you. It’s the people around you. It’s just like the players. The most important thing is the people around you.”

Alec Brownscombe is the founder of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He was also the editor of the 2009-12 Maple Leafs Annuals. You can contact him at brownscombealec@gmail.com.